Keeper of the flame: Retired firefighter preserves Kalispell department’s history
Alan "Gus" Gustafson was on a mission.
The energetic 80-year-old strode through Kalispell's Public Safety Building on a damp April morning, looking for the 2,200-pound bell that once hung from the Fire Department's hose tower, ready to summon firefighters in an emergency.
The retired firefighter's first stop was the first floor offices of the Kalispell Police Department. When that proved fruitless, he headed across the lobby, where he said the bell was once put on display, to question the staff at Kalispell Municipal Court.
They couldn't remember a bell either.
A few minutes and one flight of stairs later, Gustafson was in Fire Chief Jay Hagen's office, asking if he knew of the bell's whereabouts. Hagan shook his head. He did not.
"OK, I'm going to find it," Gustafson replied.
Hagen agreed that he would.
"When he sets his mind to it, it's going to happen," Hagen said from behind his desk.
Gustafson, who still serves as the department's historian, more than 20 years into his retirement, had a personal connection to the bell (he later located it around the corner at the Northwest Montana History Museum). Firefighters were still ringing it when he joined the department in 1971, just not for its original purpose.
"After I started, the bell was used to call curfew," he said. "Every night at a certain time we would ring the bell."